>> you're looking at a live view of the outside of the washington hilton hotel, where tonight, d.c. meets hollywood at the 98th annual white house correspondents association dinner. that entrance you are seeing has an overhang that was built after ronald reagan was shot there on march 31st, 1981. tonight's dinner is often called the nerd prom. it is one out of the biggest events in d.c. -- one of the biggest events in d.c. and over two thousand people will be attending. the late washington post columnist invited ron paul to be his guest at the dinner and ever

since then it has ground. some of the well-known faces this year include george clooney, members of the cast of modern family, and kim kardashian. we have a lot coming your way in the next few hours. at 8:00 or so, the president and mrs. obama are due to arrive at the hilton. we will cover that. at 8:30 p.m., we will let the folks in the ballroom eat and we will show you some video from this morning. there is a branch every year before this dinner and all the celebrities and politicos show up there. we will show you some footage from that. the and the speeches begin. the white house correspondents association awards scholarships.

those will be handed out around 9:00. the president is due to speak at around 10:30 p.m., and then jimmy camel is the entertainment -- jimmy kimmel is the entertainment, and he is expected to speak around 11:00. we will be live on night. we are going to start by bringing you the arrivals inside the washington hilton. here they are.

>> those are just some of the names and some of the people you have been watching arrive. at about 8:00 p.m., the head table will be introduced. we will be showing that at about 8:30 p.m. we will be showing some other things as we let them eat dinner. a lot of tweeets coming in -- tweets come in. we want to read some of these. "the white house correspondent'' dinner is the closest thing we will ever have to having a c- span layout -- c-span late- night show.

this picture was tweeted in. rick santorum crashed our party. here is another twist. watch seth meyers at last year's white house correspondents' dinner. sully sullenberger just walked by me. holly robinson peete says, headed to dinner. it is raining. the only people who can buy tables to this art organizations or journalists who are accredited by the white house correspondents association. everybody else is an invited guest. time magazine has invited george

clooney, leon panetta, steven spielberg and kate capshaw. abc has invited paul rudd, chris christie, and the cast of modern family. you saw some of them are rise earlier. reese withspoon. you saw her a ride looking pregnant. governor brown of california was invited -- you saw her a ride looking pregnant. homeland security secretary janet paula terrorist -- janet napolitano was all so -- also invited. the white house communications director was one of their and my guess. people magazine invited diane

keaton and olympia snowe. the national journal invited rosario dawson and the white house deputy chief of staff. includeited guests christene -- christine baranski. we want to go back to the arrivals. people are coming down the escalator from the recession and going around the corner and down and around this labyrinth, which is the washington hilton hotel into the ballroom. let's watch.

>> the white house correspondents' dinner 2012. the president will be speaking and jimmy kimmel follows him. people are going